Questions You Should Ask to Know Whether You Need Systems in Your Business

Holly J. Kile

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Here’s an all-too-common scenario: A seemingly successful coach (or service provider) is hard at work growing her business. She’s working lots of hours, and her hourly rate is respectable. But her cash flow is dismal.
Why?
Because she’s working so hard that finding the time to actually take control of her money is impossible.
Invoices don’t get sent on time. Past due balances are ignored. Taxes aren’t done. And maybe worst of all, she’s got dozens of recurring payments that go out

You know it’s critical to your success, but are you doing it with forethought and a solid strategy in place, or do you just “wing it?”
Admittedly, most of us are squarely in the winging it category, but there are some quick and easy changes you can make that will put even your most important networking tasks on autopilot.
Outsource the research: First step, hire a VA who can find and connect you with potential JV partners, affiliates, guest interviews, and all the other marketing options at

Ever wish you could hire a team of savvy sales people to stay in touch with your prospective clients and encourage them to buy?
When you put a few simple systems in place, you can easily replace an expensive sales force with automated tools that allow you to keep your products and services in front of potential clients. You’ll not only make more money, but you’ll do it completely hands free. All that’s required is a little forethought.
Your first must-have tool? An autoresponder. Simply put, an

You did the work. You put systems in place. Then why in the %$!@ is it not working like it should. You have a system malfunction. A system failure. Just like a mechanic would do for your car, it’s time to run a diagnostic.
The first thing to do is to identify what specifically isn’t working. Don’t just say “I’m not getting sales”. You have to be more specific than that. This is a critical step in fixing the problem.
Next, determine if it’s not working because there isn’t actually a system.

There are literally 100’s of systems your business can have but I’ve categorized them into 8 basic types:
Product/Service Creation and Delivery
Communication
Client Management
Prospect Conversion
Marketing Plan
Team Management
Sales Management
Cash Flow
Every business is going to have some different nuances with each but to make it easy to start evaluating your systems, here are some questions to ask for each one:
Product/Service Creation and Delivery System
Includes the creation of any

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve talked about making sure that you know the value of your time and that you are getting the most bang for your buck. I wanted to be sure that you know it doesn’t always have to mean hiring someone. Sometimes, it just means you need to have a better process. Systems are the backbone of every successful business. We can get all worked up over that word – systems. It seems a bit daunting but it’s really just a process. How do you get from A to B with everything

If you’re in the service business, you have a rate that you charge for your time. What is that rate? $25 per hour? $50? $100? More? There’s no judgment on that number. I personally think that for the most part, none of us truly get paid what we’re worth. A lot of folks (including me) have some weirdness around money. This isn’t one of those “let’s figure out your money story” kind of posts. Lord knows that I’m not the right person for that and there are plenty of folks out there that can help

I once heard at a conference, "If you hired someone to do some of the things at the quality you do them, you would fire them."
This statement was referring to those of us who try to do it all. Those who avoid hiring help. Think about that statement. If someone you hired was producing the same level of quality, would you keep them?
Even as a VA myself, I've long recognized the benefit of having help but it still took me a long time to let go (let's be real - I'm still working on it). I had to

Yes – I’m back! As you can tell, I took a rather lengthy hiatus from my blog and newsletter. I didn’t really intend it to be a hiatus. One week I ran behind. The next week I didn’t really know what to say. Weeks turned into months and when several months rolled by, I wasn’t sure how to start again. I wondered if anyone had even missed my writing. And then something unexpected happened. People did start asking me where I’d been. People wrote to me asking me if they were still on my list because